Thread: Glad to have my Hercus

How did you do it? ie was it in a lathe and moving the carriage to emulate a hand operated shaper or was it a milling operation with the blank held on an index-able arbour on the cross slide --- or was it not on a lathe?

I continue to be inspired by what can be achieved.

Thanks for sharing

David

You did a good job on that, how did it go?

Dave

The brass was held in the chuck. I ground a tool to 1.8mm round to make the grooves.
Yes, I used the carriage like a shaper.
My Dad had made an indexing attachment for the spindle. It locks into the back of the spindle, and you just pick one of the leadscrew gears with the right number of teeth. It locks into the spindle as well and it has a spring loaded finger that locks into the teeth.

I haven't finished it yet. I'm still trying to fine tune the keyway. I tried a simlar thing to cut the keyway, but the bit of 1/8" HSS that I ground down was flexing. So I'm having to finish the keyway with a needle file.

Would be interested to see how the indexing attachment fits and works.

On cutting an internal key-way: I had the same issue in my one attempt and like you got close enough that some fitting finished it. I was making a spacer for the change gears and needed a 1/8 key-way. I simply held a piece of 1/8 tool steel in the tool holder so it was parallel with the bore of the spacer. The tool wanted to either catch or bend away from the cut.

a discussion in these forums
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/su...19/#post498730

pointed me to a device that fits to the toolpost and uses a tool much as fitted in a boring bar.
SLOTTER

but there were other nifty ideas.

A small bore would be more challenging than my bigger effort.

This is the indexing attachment for my lathe. My Dad made it, I'm not sure if he got the idea from a model engineer mag or thunk it up himself.

Thank you.

In the first photo, I assume the piece that goes inside the spindle, with the wedge inside it, has a couple of slots cut to allow it to expand - like an old fashioned bike head stem -- or is it all a nice fit so the stretch of the metal is enough?

I like the simplicity of the design and no change to lathe

BEE55T. I like the idea of that indexing attachment. I think you've just created me some more work. I want one of those.

Can you tell me if the shaft that holds the gear and goes into the spindle is held captive (in a bearing) at the support arm or is just floating free. Looking at the pics I can't see any paint missing where the spindle would scrape against the support arm if it was floating free. In the first pic it also looks like there is some clearance around the shaft.

Originally Posted by BEE55T

This is the indexing attachment for my lathe. My Dad made it, I'm not sure if he got the idea from a model engineer mag or thunk it up himself.

Whatever, it's a nice design, well made.

Jordan

Yes, the sleeve that fits into the spindle is spit. In the photo you can just see the keyhole type slot at the top left.

And the support arm is a fairly neat fit over the spindle lock section.

Would people be interested in a full drawing/write up?
I can pull it apart and measure it up if you'd all like.

Ok !

Originally Posted by BEE55T

Would people be interested in a full drawing/write up?
I can pull it apart and measure it up if you'd all like.

Yes please. I started drawing one up tonight to figure out how to make it but that would save some of my old brain cells.

I've started sketching it all up, just got to figure it out myself. Will post up a new thread when I get it sorted.